[Greenbuilding] sealing plywood floor?

John Salmen terrain at shaw.ca
Wed Apr 4 19:30:17 CDT 2012


I have only specified this floor for slab on grade (in lieu of the concrete
slab). All the ground preparation is the same (gravel, sand, drainage, etc.)

Why someone would build below ground water levels or not provide for
hydrostatic is beyond me, generally groundwater is pretty predictable - why
they would finish a room in that space is even more beyond me - why the
insurance company would allow them is another question. I have a basement
that hasn't leaked in 50 years but it is built on 50' of gravel at the top
of a hill. 

That said - if you were building a basement - why not put down 6" of foam on
a gravel base instead of 3-4" of concrete. An inch of bonded exterior ply
can take a significant amount of wetting and dry without problems. If you
were really fussy you could put down a thickset with tile over the foam.
Reality is if it is a finished basement and it floods everything gets torn
out.


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of RT
Sent: April-04-12 10:08 AM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] sealing plywood floor?

On Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:32:58 -0400, Benjamin Pratt
<benjamin.g.pratt at gmail.com> wrote:

> wouldn't 1/2 plywood warp over time?

I can't add anything to WatJohn's excellent comments on the water vapour
issues & warping.

The other evening on my way to the mailbox, I met up with a neighbour whose
basement flooded recently (Spring Thaw), the result of a sump pump failure
and no back-up in place. I don't envy him one bit WRT the clean-up. He has
since replaced the sump pump, added a back-up and a flooding sensor with
auto-dialer to his cell phone. I suppose that so long as the two pumps,
flood sensor, auto-dialer and cell phone are all working properly the next
time, he'll be okay.

Another neighbour had the same thing happen just a couple of years ago  to
their 1 yr-old home.
$60,000-plus to fix the water damage to the finished basement.

And then there's the whole subdivision in town, that 3 years ago, had their
basements flooded with backed-up sewage after a heavy rain overwhelmed the
municipal sewers. There was no salvaging of anything from those basements.

The reality seems to be that with conventionally-detailed basements (ie
tarred on the exterior surface, backfilled with native soil, perimeter
drainage tile, sump pump inside), especially in low-lying areas (or even in
high and dry areas, laundry room/kitchen/bathroom incidents do occur)
flooding is not a rarity so anticipating such would be prudent.

I'm trying to imagine what would happen to a plywood-gooped-to-stryofoam
floor (ie drying from one side only )in such a situation.


--
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a > (manually winnow the chaff
from my edress if you hit "reply")

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